in search of vermillion
by lavender macarons
Summary: When he started to talk about "seeing" the alphabet in rainbows and stripes in numbers, his parents took him to the doctor, and at four years old, Gabriel Enjolras was diagnosed with Synesthesia. [ragtag troop universe] Modern AU, Enjolras-centric, E/É, One-shot.


**Synesthesia (n.):** a condition in which one type of sensory stimulation evokes perception in another sense

* * *

When he started to talk about "seeing" the alphabet in rainbows and stripes in numbers, his parents took him to the doctor, and at four years old, Gabriel Enjolras was diagnosed with Synesthesia.

At first his parents thought he was just overrun with creativity. Their cat obviously wasn't purple, the neighbor's dog wasn't yellow, and his father's toupee wasn't blue — "Of course it matches the rest of my hair!" his father, Sebastian, said while crouching down to look at the four year old. He looked at his wife for confirmation, but all he got was a side eye and "It really doesn't," muttered under her breath — and, from his mother's gasping and sputtering, he could tell that her diamond necklace definitely wasn't puke green.

When he started to talk about "seeing" the alphabet in rainbows and stripes in numbers, his parents took him to the doctor, and at four years old, Gabriel Enjolras was diagnosed with Synesthesia.

It wasn't a problem in his daily life. It actually helped him with his schoolwork in the long run because he remembered the order of the patterns and colors when he was solving math problems or taking quizzes. His teachers would have chose him every week for star student if they could. When he was halfway through pre-school, he began to find colors in his mind that would appear when he saw certain people.

* * *

At five he realized that the colors he assigned to people were a reflection of how he saw them.

* * *

His father is a heather grey, a fray of light and dark intertwining and bending for each other. His father is an extremely serious man outside of their home, but Gabriel found that during their dinners his father's contagious, booming laugh would make him laugh so much that his cheeks hurt. He was adamant when it came to his own beliefs, but would support his family with any of their decisions.

His mother, Penelope, is timberwolf, a grey so light that one could confuse it for white at first glance. She is his confidant and his loudest fan. He loves his father to pieces, but his mother is an ethereal being to him. He'd always thought she was an angel and she reinforced that idea when she brought Mina to join their family.

* * *

At six he gets a younger sister, Mina. His aunt, or really, his mother's best friend, Sun — a woman from South Korea_ (that he had a crush on for years because he thought she had pretty hair and teeth_) that studied for a year in California — had a younger sister that was a single mother, but she passed away because of an illness when her daughter was three. Sun, like the rest of the inhabitants of Seoul, lived in a cramped apartment with her family of five, so Mina's grandparents wanted to give her up for adoption. Penelope adopted her so that her connection to her biological family wouldn't have to be severed.

Gabriel is instrumental in the process of her learning English. He reads her the tales that his parents told him and ties along the colors and patterns that appeared in his mind. They would sit by the radio and he would describe the painting that each word of the song would create. In his first three years of schooling (from the age of four to six), he had a difficult time making friends, so the bright, giggly three year old was a welcome change in his life. He declares to his parents one night during dinner that she is and will be his bestest friend to the end of days.

Mina, obviously, physically was different from the Enjolras' family. Her dark hair (_though, she started dyeing it the same color as gabriel's when she was sixteen_), her dark eyes, and her tall stature (_enjolras women tended to be short_), she was almost their complete opposite. Gabriel also found that he didn't associate her with the shades of grey that he identified with the rest of his family.

* * *

Mina is a tea rose, the kind of pink that could be found in vintage jewelry, the best cotton candy. and the walls of a bakery because it's so inviting. She is determined to stand out against the crowd, but remains sweet and polite in the process. Even as he meets a slew of new people, no one ever produced a pink as warm as hers.

* * *

At seven he meets Adrian Courfeyrac and Henry Combeferre. On the first day of second grade they are assigned to sit at the same table, which is where they find that they all like to read Captain Underpants.

They are an outrageously rowdy bunch throughout elementary school, leaving trails of havoc wherever their short legs could. Gabriel constantly schemes to fight for a better lunch (_looking back, he doesn't understand how he got to the conclusion that they needed to streak_), Adrian charms the administrators so they can bypass punishments, and Henry convinces the rest of their class that they should join them in their next set of antics. The two boys (_really adrian and adrian making henry agree_) pester him to no end when he accidentally calls Adrian "lemon" and Henry "puddle". When they find out about the Synaesthesia, they believe that he is a superhero (_and they actually still believe that to this day_).

The trio mellows down by the time they reach high school (_though, it is obvious to mina that they are behind all of the odd occurrences whenever she has a date_), but they remain as close as can be.

* * *

Adrian is sunglow, the shade of a crayon that one would pick to draw the sun and for petals of a dandelion. Adrian is loud, both in voice and personality. He has the type of smile that can cause a whole room to stop what they're doing so they can smile back, and he lives for the attention. He loves being loved.

Henry is periwinkle blue, the tint of the horizon when the sun is starting to rise but isn't visible quite yet. He is calm and has a certain aura that draws people to him and makes them feel like they can trust him with their lives.

* * *

At twelve he meets Rowell Grantaire, Dominic Bossuet, and William Bahorel. They are regulars at a summer camp which he attends that year (_because mina wanted to and his parents didn't consent until he offered to go with her_), and they talk him into ditching activities for a day.

He hates it (_he just wants to improve the world, not break every rule possible_), but he finds them tolerable so he sticks around. They make fun of him for being a stick in the mud, but he's used to Adrian and Mina telling him that every day, so it does nothing. What they don't figure out that summer (_or the next, or the next, and so on_), is why he always calls them grapes.

They all keep in touch. Gabriel regularly gets texts from them telling him to stop being such a doughnut. He almost pulls his hair out when they tell him that they chose to go to the same university as him.

* * *

Rowell is wine purple, a shade so deep and rich that it almost appears to be black. He can and will make a joke out of anything, but his humor is really dark. He hides his problems in shadows, but when there is enough trust, he will say anything and everything about himself. He is a lover, he is a hater, but most importantly he is a friend.

Dominic is mauve, the purple that is chosen for every wedding or for the walls of a little girl that believes she is a fairy princess. Behind his bad luck (_he always walked into the same screen door, every day of camp_) is royalty. He conducts himself like a prince (_sadly, along with that comes the prince syndrome_) and talks like he's been trained by the best press reporter when they make fun of his falls.

William is a neon purple, eye catching, bold, commanding, and somewhat laughable. He actually wears a lot of neon purple, which had him at the butt of a multitude of jokes until he knocked out one of the (_older!_) boys with one punch. When they have a "survivor" day in the forest, he is the one that takes charge and knows how to take care of everyone. He (_and his shirts_) always stand out.

* * *

At fifteen he notices that he hasn't found a person that brings out the color red.

* * *

At sixteen he meets Jean Prouvaire and Logan Feuilly. They are both in his homeroom class and they are openly gay.

They both befriend him after he stands up for them (_against, of all people, the teacher. needless to say, the teacher wasn't their teacher for that long_) and he starts sitting in the lab station that they occupied in the back. Jean finds it hilarious that Gabriel blushes easily, so he starts slipping rather raunchy poems into his locker. Logan takes Gabriel to his family's paper craft store, where his ninety-two year old grandfather teaches him how to make a paper rose.

After they dance around each other for two years, Gabriel is the one that pushes them together during their senior year (_as in, he literally pushed them into each other for a keychain photo at their senior ball_). Surprisingly, they are the ones that are sober that night and, while driving Gabriel, Adrian, and Henry to Gabriel's house, they hear him muttering about finding a girl that is red. Before they can investigate further, Mina is running out to make sure he's okay (_he wasn't answering the phone and he always answers the phone_).

* * *

Jean is lime green, the epitome of sixties flower power or the candy that one can really tell will the the most sour. He has a gaudy fashion sense and a beautiful soul that anyone can spot from a mile away. He is often dismissed as weak or too effeminate, but the person who says that is just lucky to have never been punched by him.

Logan is peach, the shade that is found most in the spring, on dresses that make girls want to twirl and run in the sunlight, or the plastic easter eggs that are hidden in parks. He has people naturally gravitating towards him because of his soft nature. His paintings, even at sixteen, sell for a large amount of money and in large quantities because they appear so simple at the surface but are infused with an elegance that even some of the most famous artists can't find.

* * *

At eighteen he meets Marius Pontmercy and Benjamin Joly. They are the only freshman in their Calculus 2 class and they bond while they are studying in terror for their first midterm.

Marius and Benjamin have been best friends since they were in middle school, so Gabriel was a little reluctant to join their study group, but he finds that they have a mutual secret appreciation for Mamma Mia. During one of their long study sessions in a cafe a short distance off campus, Benjamin coerces Marius and Gabriel into talking about health and medicine. Seeing as he's known Marius for years, he spends most of the conversation pestering Gabriel to talk about his experiences.

When Benjamin finally annoys Gabriel enough, he tells them of his Synesthesia and how it's helped and hindered him, and how it has changed over the years.

He leaves that night when Benjamin asks if he can sense diseases through the colors.

* * *

Marius is mint green, the shade of grass in a child's finger painting or a dinosaur in a children's book, a color that, oddly, can match with the colors it clashes with. He is somehow so experienced and so naive at the same time. He is so astonishingly stupid when it comes to social situations, but every one can't help but forgive him when he flashes his bashful smiles.

Benjamin is persian orange, like the juices that people drink when they are getting sick or the cutest goldfish in the aquarium. He's one of those people that causes an inexplicable dread when one has to meet up with him (_or not that inexplicable, it's because he keeps asking about diseases_), but ultimately makes the day a hell of a lot better. He is a human dosage of Vitamin C.

* * *

At eighteen he meets Cosette Fauchevalent and Musichetta Evans. They are Marius' and Benjamin's significant others, and the first actual friends of the female gender that he's ever had.

He meets Cosette at the program he volunteers at to help children learn how to read. Her father is the head of the program, so she swings by once and a while to help out and to make sure his father is taking care of himself. He recognizes Cosette from one of the pictures that Marius carries around in his wallet (_she reddens when he tells her that_) and she remembers Benjamin and Marius going on and on about this cool pretty boy that sings ABBA in class (_he looks like a tomato at the end of the description_), so they talk while he helps out one of the little girls, Brianna (_she's asian and spunky and reminds him of mina_). They start reading with her every week and she is amazed when he comes up with a story for each letter, especially the one about the super hero, The Red E.

He meets Musichetta when one of his study sessions with Marius and Benjamin overlap with her shift at the cafe. They become partners in making fun of the two boys and he is her favorite customer because he is the most frequent visitor of their group (_he needs an unnatural amount of caffeine to get through the day_). She is there when Benjamin gets him to talk about his Synaesthesia, and even though it sounded amazing to her then, she is in awe when she goes with him and Cosette to see Brianna and she hears the story of The Red E. Her relatively popular blog gets a more hits than it ever has when she writes up a post about him (_she thinks it's because of the picture of him that accompanies it_).

* * *

Cosette is robin's egg blue (_or tiffany blue_), a color that has come to represent wealth and happiness for a lot of women, or reminds everyone of the beautiful Audrey Hepburn. She was raised with all the graces of a high society but without the haughtiness that tends to develop along with it. She never settles for anything less than her best efforts, and goes through hardships with a sparkling smile.

Musichetta is wisteria lavender (_she smells like it too!_), a tint that is reminiscent of a tea shop, or a cloudy sky when the sun is setting. Her appearance and personality can be as soft as the color or as fierce as the scent. She is sarcastic and blunt, but when she is with Benjamin, there is nobody in the world as caring as her.

* * *

At eighteen he meets Eponine Thenardier. He is starting his second quarter in university when he officially meets the missing fifth of Marius, Benjamin, Cosette, and Musichetta.

He's seen her around campus, either talking to his friends or singing while speed walking to the theater wearing a tutu or carrying her books around the engineering building. He doesn't know her name at that point, just that she somehow knows Marius and Benjamin and that he sometimes see flashes of red when she passes by.

When he asks about her, (_after a shitload of teasing_) he finds out that her name is Eponine Thenardier and that she has a full ride to the university. She is taking classes geared towards civil engineering, but she really loves musical theater. Her workload is really heavy because she's taking an overload of units, that's why she hasn't been around the cafe, but she made sure she would have more free time the next quarter.

Gabriel and the whole lot of his other eleven friends are together for the third time (_it's really difficult to align all their schedules_) when the infamous Miss Thenardier finally makes her appearance. She walks in with Benjamin and is laughing at the lame joke he made. Cosette and Musichetta run to give her a hug, and Marius (_who was dragged along with cosette_) kisses her on the cheek. The two couples introduce their friend and Eponine turns to smile at them, all dimples and shiny teeth. She is met with a variety of responses, someone is yelling "where have you been all my life?!" and there's Adrian immediately runs up to kiss her hand- this earns him a glare from Gabriel, which at one point was mistaken as jealousy, but later is cleared up to be because Adrian has a thing with Mina - and Jean gives her a one line poem that he wrote as soon as she entered the room.

The most interesting one to her, however, is Gabriel, who shakes her hand and flashes a smile and says under his breath that she's red.

* * *

Eponine is not just red, she is ruby red, she is crimson, she is auburn, she is mahogany, she is vermillion, the color of July and fire and the rose in Beauty and the Beast or the apple in Snow White. She is loud and sarcastic like Musichetta, but there is a motherly aspect in her teasing. She takes care of her younger siblings and her overworked parents, she helps Marius whenever he says the wrong thing, she carries band aids for Benjamin, and she starts to keep tea in her bag for Henry, who doesn't drink coffee. She is sometimes hidden by sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds, but to Gabriel she is the loveliest gem of them all.

* * *

At nineteen he starts to date Eponine.

She finds out about his Synesthesia because it is the topic of his second speech in their speech class second quarter. She is interested in the condition and starts hanging around him more to ask him questions about it. She is the only one, aside from Mina, Adrian and Henry, that knows each of the colors he sees with all of their group. The rest of their ragtag group of friends keep teasing them, but that just encourages her to stick around him even more.

It isn't until after he asks her out and their first kiss on Valentine's Day that she finds out that she's the only person that has showed up as his favorite color. (_"i better be the only one!"_)

* * *

When Eponine is around, red is the only color he can see.

* * *

a/n: This is set in the universe of "the linguistics of love" (: I decided to give them first names too, I hope that didn't get too confusing.

Please Read & Review!


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